Akin stepped angrily toward Tammer but Limus’s touch stopped him.
“I believe my son over you.”
“Which one?” Tammer asked. The wind continued to build into a frenzy and lightning crackled across the sky, waiting for Tammer’s command.
Limus didn’t answer. Instead, he shifted the subject. “Get off my property. You are trespassing.”
“We are taking Thayde with us.” Mom said.
“Over my dead body!” Akin shouted and began to run toward them. Vitahl raised his arms. The earth rolled under his feet and the motion shot toward Akin with tremendous speed, knocking him down and throwing the others about. It continued toward the main house and shook the foundation.
“Stop!” Limus yelled, holding up his hands.
“What’s the matter, Limus? You can give it but you can’t take it?” Tammer pointed at the house and lightning struck a turret, crumbling it. The wind was picking up so quickly it was hard for everyone except Tammer to stand. Lightning struck down around them and the Dartmoth’s huddled together. Limus turned and walked toward the house.
“Come, Morgandy.” Vitahl was by my side. Gently he lifted Thayde’s broken body into his arms. “Tammer!” His voice rose above the wind, “That’s enough. Let’s go.”
Mom put her arms around Tammer’s chest and that seemed to snap his focus away from the Dartmoth’s. He focused on me, his icy eyes looking me over carefully.
“Morgan, are you okay?”
Mom put her arms around me and held me for a moment. A tingly, warm feeling flowed from her into me as she tried to put some energy back into me. The sick feeling went away.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I said and Mom drew back.
“Please don’t ever do anything so stupid again!” Her voice quivered. “You could have been killed.”
I nodded and followed them to the road where Vitahl’s green Range Rover was parked among the thick brush. As he lifted Thayde onto the seat, a pained groan escaped Thayde’s torn lips.
“Is he awake?” I shrieked, frantically scrambling into the seat next to him.
“No,” Vitahl shifted Thayde to the middle and then got in, closing the door. Tammer and Mom jumped in the front and started the car.
“He’s going to need a lot of time to get over this,” Vitahl said to Mom.
“I’ll help him heal.” The worry on Mom’s face was scary. Did this mean he was near death?
“Is he going to die?” I asked, not wanting to hear her answer.
“I won’t let him die,” Mom said, turning around in her seat to face forward.
That terrified me. How could they have done this? The Judgment was too harsh. There was no doubt about it. I couldn’t let the Dartmoth’s go unpunished.
The first day of school sucked. It seemed so inconsequential now. I couldn’t remain focused on anything, knowing that back at home Thayde lay in a coma in our guest bedroom. Mom was taking care of him, but she said that because he was a willing participant in The Judgment, he had completely let his defenses down and was very badly hurt because of it. She said he would live, but she wasn’t sure when he’d wake up. It had been four days now, and he hadn’t moved a muscle. The only way I knew he was alive was that I could hear him breathing.
Every day, when I returned home from school, I went to his side. I talked to him and told him of the dreams I’d had about him before we met. My pleas with him to wake up went unanswered. Eventually, I just lay on the bed next to him and held his cool hand. Most of the time I was with him, I felt sick with worry.
On the fifth day of school, the Dartmoth clan appeared. They ignored me completely which was fine with me. When I told Tiesa what had happened, she had cried.
“I told you they were nasty! I can’t believe that Akin! He should go to jail for what he did.”
“You know the laws here. There’s nothing we can do, for some reason.”
“Oh, there is, but you’d be stirring a huge pot of trouble by doing it.”
I stopped her in her tracks.
“What do you mean?”
Shifting uneasily, she kicked a locker.
“You could always contact Troen, but that’s almost impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because no one knows where he is.”
“What’s the point of having all that power if you refuse to do anything about it?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed, and we began to walk down the hall, “Something about wanting us to solve our differences on our own.”
“But Thayde did nothing wrong! The Dartmoth’s are acting like this is their world and they can do anything they want.”